Comments Thread for: Tyson Fury signs ESPN fight deal worth reported £80m

Ray7y ago

British heavyweight Tyson Fury has signed a fight deal with a United States television network worth a reported £80m. The deal, which is understood to cover Fury's next five fights, will see him broadcast on ESPN in the US while remaining on BT Sport in the UK. Promoter Frank Warren said the deal was "something special". Fury said he believes the move makes a rematch with WBC world champion Deontay Wilder "more makeable". But Fury's December draw with Wilder aired on BT Sport in the UK as well as Showtime - who broadcast Wilder's fights - in the US. Now Fury has his own US broadcaster, agreements will have to be reached between ESPN and Showtime over the airing of his fights in America. It means Wilder, Fury and unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua all have rival US broadcasters, which could make negotiations for them to fight each another more challenging. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/47280228

Comments (20)

_Rexy_

doesn't arum still promote parker? what about andy ruiz? with those two that's five. Ruiz left a couple months ago for PBC. He's fighting April 20th (he said on his Instagram) but opponent hasn't been announced yet. And I haven't seen Parker on the TR website...will check again though. EDIT - The Parker thing seems murky, like it may have been on a fight by fight basis through Parkers promoters back home?

7y ago

boliodogs

That's a lot of money per fight but not nearly as much as Canelo gets per fight.

7y ago

badnewsbrown

£80mil for 5 fights? Seems low?

7y ago

SHOOTALLCLOWNS

Yeah in 2014 or whatever when he was a 1-1 prospect. Has he been on Showtime since the TR/ESPN deal started?arum allowed one of his young up and coming stars oleksandr gzodyk to fight on showtime against chickenson where he won the wbc belt. you forget about that already?

7y ago

SHOOTALLCLOWNS

Arum doesn't like his major stars playing with others, but Arum also has the following Heavyweights: Pulev, Jennings and Rivas. Gonna need to do some cross promotional thing for his 5 fights considering he doesn't even have 5 fighters.doesn't arum still promote parker? what about andy ruiz? with those two that's five.

7y ago

SHOOTALLCLOWNS

You aren’t filling me with confidence with your examples of TR fighters fighting on Sho my man :lol1: Arum doesn’t like his major stars playing with anyone else. Always been that way. Fury, at approx $20mill a fight, is now one of his major stars. At the very least you have to acknowledge this makes the Wilder fight much more difficult to make.its not exclusive to arum. when's the last time you've seen a showtime/pbc fighter on a rival network?

7y ago

bigdunny1

Arum overpaid to kill the Fury/Wilder rematch. Sucks for fans but apparently the money was too good for Fury to turn down.

7y ago

R_Walken

Im a Fury fan but you cant take this news as anything other then he didn’t really want that rematch. Because if he did and was confident of winning and not getting bombed out he would signed after have after a May rematch with Wilder Dont hate a fighter getting paid , But’s it’s wack for fans that the Top 3 HW will all now be on different platforms with basically no chance of fighting each other anytime soon.

7y ago

_Rexy_

You aren’t filling me with confidence with your examples of TR fighters fighting on Sho my man :lol1: Arum doesn’t like his major stars playing with anyone else. Always been that way. Fury, at approx $20mill a fight, is now one of his major stars. At the very least you have to acknowledge this makes the Wilder fight much more difficult to make. Arum doesn't like his major stars playing with others, but Arum also has the following Heavyweights: Pulev, Jennings and Rivas. Gonna need to do some cross promotional thing for his 5 fights considering he doesn't even have 5 fighters.

7y ago

Tom_Cruise

So in the end, Fury is just like any other fighter out there, he's all about money. Who the fck will he fight now? Pulev? Rivas? Can't blame him obviously but still it's a little disappointing Yep that’s how I feel. I can’t blame Fury for doing what every other fighter has done, but it could have ****ed the division for the foreseeable future. If the major fights do happen they will be after long drawn out negotiations, and likely with plenty of filler fights in between to make sure the networks get their due. This was already the case with Wilder vs AJ, now we can add Fury to that mix as well.

7y ago

Tom_Cruise

Isn't that deal only 8 months old? and off the top of my head (I remember watching it, just not what station) Wasn't Parker/Whyte on Showtime? You aren’t filling me with confidence with your examples of TR fighters fighting on Sho my man :lol1: Arum doesn’t like his major stars playing with anyone else. Always been that way. Fury, at approx $20mill a fight, is now one of his major stars. At the very least you have to acknowledge this makes the Wilder fight much more difficult to make.

7y ago

Ray

So in the end, Fury is just like any other fighter out there, he's all about money. Who the fck will he fight now? Pulev? Rivas? Can't blame him obviously but still it's a little disappointing Yeah don't blame him, all fighters are all about the money. Some just like to pretend as if it doesn't matter to them. No one wants to be getting hit in the head for peanuts.

7y ago

_Rexy_

Yeah in 2014 or whatever when he was a 1-1 prospect. Has he been on Showtime since the TR/ESPN deal started? Isn't that deal only 8 months old? and off the top of my head (I remember watching it, just not what station) Wasn't Parker/Whyte on Showtime?

7y ago

Szef

So in the end, Fury is just like any other fighter out there, he's all about money. Who the fck will he fight now? Pulev? Rivas? Can't blame him obviously but still it's a little disappointing

7y ago

denium

Damn, Fury just got paid. No wonder he could afford to give away his Wilder purse to charity.

7y ago

SNPER

ESPN deal is to keep Fury's money coming regardless if he wins or loses.

7y ago

_original_

there's always an asterisk though. Lomachenko has an exclusive contract with Top Rank/ESPN but he's fought on Showtime. Lol way before the ESPN deal, right after he lost to Salido.

7y ago

Randall_Cunning

What I don't understand about this move is Why PBC or DAZN didn't move heaven and earth to get Fury Negotiations between any of the 3 top heavyweights are going to be ass now, none of them is going to be willing to miss out Probably because of the deal with BT Sport. If he fought Joshua it would be on Sky PPV and DAZN, Wilder would be Showtime PPV and ITV PPV. Warren wants the fights to be on BT PPV, so ESPN is the move

7y ago

Tom_Cruise

there's always an asterisk though. Lomachenko has an exclusive contract with Top Rank/ESPN but he's fought on Showtime. Yeah in 2014 or whatever when he was a 1-1 prospect. Has he been on Showtime since the TR/ESPN deal started?

7y ago

Ray

MTK and TR have a nice relationship and obviously BT Sports and ESPN. And this way Fury could be the lone HW face of the network. Going to PBC or DAZN, he would have to share the spotlight or play second fiddle. True that, he would definitely play second fiddle. Who else is in the market (Whyte? Ortiz? Breazeale?)...Which networks are left? lol

7y ago